1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vehicles, more particularly to vehicles having a plurality of legs.
2. Prior Art
Historically most vehicles have had wheels. More recent developments have been with track laying vehicles and combinations of these with wheels. Hovercraft can also be said to be vehicle.
All the above are limited by the type of terrain that they can negotiate. In certain conditions, a vehicle with a plurality of legs or legged vehicle that can "walk" has considerable advantages.
Some, although not all, robots are vehicles. However, a two legged robot has to have dynamic balancing in order for it to walk and for it to have long enough legs to climb over obstacles would require a complicated system. Various multi-legged vehicles are possible, including multi-legged robots. Anything that has less than six legs is likely to require some degree of balance during moving, or "walking". A six legged vehicle is known that can move a pair of legs at a time and still be in a stable condition on the other four. Each leg can move forwards and backwards as well as having knee and hip pivot joints. Forward motion is achieved by moving the body forward with the legs swivelling backwards, then lifting successive legs and moving them forwards and placing them on the ground before doing the next body move. Changing direction is achieved by moving the legs on one side further than on the other side.
Some sideways movements could be done by combined hip and knee joint moves with the legs on the ground and bringing them to suitable positions for the next move.
All these movements are complicated and would require computer control in order to coordinate them with any speed and turning through 90 degrees would require a number of moves. To overcome the limitations of these conventional leg configurations and moves, the vehicle in accordance with the present invention is constructed in a different way.